The rule of laws: a 4,000-year quest to order the world

A worldwide survey of legal history that draws on a vast repertoire of texts and traditions. Pirie, a professor of the anthropology of law at Oxford and a specialist in Tibetan culture, notes that even among the nomadic peoples of the high Himalayan plateau, legal codes have developed to determine who can use a given patch of grassland and speak on behalf of their band. "Small communities the world over have made laws to regulate internal affairs and maintain a sense of distinctiveness and autonomy," writes the author. Still, for all the esoteric legal traditions out there, such as the rules of beekeeping codified by Irish monks, societies tend to develop most of their fixed rules at the state level, and as Pirie notes early on, local traditions have tended to give way to international orders: "The national legal systems now found throughout the world are almost all modeled on those developed by European nations in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries." In an agile though somewhat overlong history, Pirie begins with Hammurabi, whose legal code expanded beyond "pragmatic and mundane rules" to become a body of laws that justified state power but also gave people an ordered place in Babylonian society and attendant rights. The author argues convincingly that the best legal traditions are those in which rights and responsibilities are reciprocal, helping people, in the case of that Mesopotamian legal code, "navigate complex social relations in a society divided into different social classes and professions." Subsequent legal developments have codified what constitutes fair trade, what legal rights the citizens of a state can expect to enjoy, and the like. In the modern era, Pirie concludes, international laws continue to proliferate, often surrounding highly complex issues such as how to regulate the internet, if at all. A valuable study for students of the law and its evolution over the millennia. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Where do laws come from? How long have law systems existed? Pirie (law, Oxford Univ.; Legal Ideology in Tibet) explores these questions, providing a global view of the development of legal systems over the past 4,000 years. The book begins in ancient Mesopotamia and navigates to the modern world. Pirie focuses on the far-reaching and lasting influence of three major cultures; those of Mesopotamia, China, and India. She argues that these civilizations developed the kernels from which future societies often shaped or reinterpreted their systems. For instance, Hammurabi codified law in the Babylon of the 18th century BCE; these codes began a tradition of written law and also set precedents that appear again in biblical tradition, the author explains. A fascinating discussion includes the European landscape after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, when the Germanic nations re-established or integrated Roman law into local practices. There is no "legalese" here: rather, the text is very easy to read, and Pirie is gifted in explaining complex issues in simple terms. Extensive notes provide guides for further reading. VERDICT An intriguing synthesis of the history of global legal codes and their origins.—Jeffrey Meyer, Iowa Wesleyan Univ.